What Times Demand
by Agrotera Thanatos
Summary: A flight over Tokyo for Beelzemon turns into a midnight chat between Impmon and his Tamers on why he had to leave. Doing the right thing is often hard, but is always necessary.


**I've gotten a couple of reviews saying that it's sad my story 'Glutton for Punishment' ended yesterday. I'm open to ideas on possible further chapters if anything strkies me as interesting enough, so if someone has one, add it to the end of a review or pm me. For now, this cute and fluffy tale about Beelzemon/Impmon and his twin tamers will have to do. Remember it well, various human shaped beings, that I do not own a single bit of Digimon.**

**What Times Demand**

It was a lazy night in the Digital World, and since Kuzuhamon was busy with some things at Light Castle, Beelzemon decided to roam the human world. It wasn't like his fellow Demon Lords were going to be suspicious, either – the others had plans to subjugate the human world, so if Beelzemon went, they just let it go.

Not only that, but there was something that the Demon Lord just had to do, and it couldn't wait for later. So it was with that purpose that Beelzemon had taken on his Blast Mode form and was silently gliding throughout the streets of Tokyo to pay a visit to someone. Well, two someones. It was them that he was visiting, and it was for their protection that he had originally left.

And it was their bond that brought Beelzemon to a window just slightly cracked open. Inside the room in question were twin children, a boy and a girl, who looked like they were in preschool or kindergarten. Beelzemon watched the two of them with a distant expression on his face.

"Who's there?" the girl said sleepily, waking up and snapping Beelzemon out of his thoughts.

"It's all right, just go back to sleep," Beelzemon said, hoping she'd shrug it off as a dream.

"Beelzemon!" the girl said, getting up to wake her brother. "Makoto, Beelzemon's come back to visit!"

"He is, Ai?" Makoto said, waking up immediately. "He is! Beelzemon!" he chirped happily, going over to open the window to let the Demon Lord fly in.

"You guys should be asleep," Beelzemon said, but complied anyway.

"Why are you here?" Ai asked. "I thought that those angel Digimon said you had to help them beat up the bad Digimon."

"Yeah, well, it's quiet and I wanted to see how you were," Beelzemon said, sitting down on Makoto's bed. He concentrated and reverted to his Rookie form of Impmon. "There ya go, now it'll be a little easier for you to talk to me."

Ai smiled and hugged the demon Digimon that she and her brother had both become Tamers to. "What's happening in the Digital World, Impmon?"

"A lot of stuff. The bad Digimon are trying to make everyone else's lives miserable, and I have to do my part to stop them."

"Why can't you just beat them up?" Makoto asked.

"Because I have to make them think I'm one of them. As long as they believe that I'm on their side, I'll get to know what they're doing. One day, it'll be over and then I can hang out with you more."

"Okay," Makoto said, also hugging Impmon. He and his sister had long since learned to share, and they'd both realized that if they _both_ hugged their Digimon, then he'd enjoy it more – usually.

"Can't…breathe…" Impmon said.

"Sorry!" the two said, letting go.

"It's all right."

"Hey Impmon…" Ai said.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a girlfriend?" she asked the demon.

Impmon's face turned red, making him thankful that it wouldn't show in the dark room. "Where d'ya get these ideas, Ai?" he asked. "I don't got a girlfriend."

"But we talked to Suzie today and _she_ said that her brother saw you as Beelzemon at a pizza place with a girl Digimon!" she said.

Impmon cursed mentally. _Of course Henry saw me; he was there with Rika, Jeri, and the goggle-head. _"Maybe it was a human who looked like me?"

"No, it was you," Makoto said. "Her brother saw you."

Impmon tried to look innocent. Of course, it made sense that Ai, Makoto, and Suzie all knew each other – they were all about the same age and all Tamers. "I don't know what you mean…"

"What's her name?" Ai asked. "Is she pretty? Will you bring her here to visit?"

"Is she strong?" Makoto asked.

"In order – Kuzuhamon, more than you could imagine, maybe, I'll ask her, and yes," Impmon said, smiling as he thought of the holy Digimon he'd come to care for and love so much. "I think she'd like you two."

"Really?" they said.

"Yeah."

"Impmon?" Makoto asked.

"Yeah, Mako?"

"Why did you leave us? I thought that when you came back, you'd stay with us forever."

"Yeah…" Ai said, going over to their dresser and taking out their D-Power Digivice. "We kept this…"

"You guys already know," Impmon said. "The other Demon Lords are dangerous. They don't care who they hurt as long as they get their way. Salamon told me that I had to trick them into thinkin' I was their friend so they'd trust me. These guys are scary bad, you two. I have to help defeat them; I'm the only one who can do this job."

"Can't we help?" Makoto asked.

"No. I am _not_ gonna _ever_ put the two of you in danger. You guys are way too little to be goin' to the Digital World to fight. I can take care of myself."

"Do you not like us that much?" Ai asked.

"Ai, Mako, you _know_ I wanna stay here and hang out with you. I wish I could. But this job of mine is just too important. It's already bad enough Kuzuha's in constant danger because of it – I can't go out and just _be _with her. I don't know if they're spying on me even when we sneak out. You guys are jus' little kids; you don't need to be put at risk like that."

"All right…" the kids said.

"Thank you."

"Are you gonna go now?" Ai asked.

"Yeah. I have to get back. I'll visit when I can, 'kay?"

"'Kay," Makoto said.

Impmon smiled and Digivolved back into Beelzemon Blast Mode. He stepped out the window and got ready to take off.

"Good luck," Ai said.

"Kick their butts!" Makoto cheered.

Beelzemon chuckled. "Thanks. And I will. And don't worry, I'll ask Kuzuhamon if she wants to meet you sometime."

The two laughed and smiled at their partner. The other Tamers had Digimon, true, but Ai and Makoto's partner had an important mission. Their Impmon was the best.

"Get back to bed, you two," he ordered.

"Okay," Ai and Makoto said, doing as they were told. Beelzemon smiled one last time at his twin Tamers and flew away; the only proof he'd been there at all being a few glossy black feathers.

Beelzemon flew high up into the night sky, chill winds whipping around his face as he rose higher. Few things would have made him happier than staying with his Tamers now that they've learned to share. But what times demanded of him kept him from his home and housed in a hideous place where the other inhabitants were more likely to kill him than help him.

He'd go back there for real one day, though. And he'd have Kuzuhamon with him.

But for now, the Demon Lord of Gluttony just kept flying through the midnight sky.


End file.
